Washington, October 19 : Losing even a moderate amount of weight could help cut down the risk of developing osteoarthritis in the knees, according to a study.

Data from an ongoing study by the Thurston Arthritis Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, revealed people who are overweight and shed just 5 percent of their weight were less likely to develop knee OA, a common joint disease affecting middle-aged and older people, compared to people who gain weight.

Lead researcher Lauren Abbate, also a medical student at UNC, along with her team based their research on data from the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project, a leading study of arthritis.

She said: “We hear a lot of messages about how obesity affects cardiovascular disease and diabetes, but arthritis is often overlooked.

“OA is painful and debilitating. Effective treatments are limited and there’s not a cure. But if we can get people to lose weight we may reduce their risk and reduce the pain and disability associated with this condition.”

She added: “It was our hope that people who maintained weight would have reduced risk, but obesity is such a strong risk factor for OA, that maintaining weight showed no significant benefit.”

The knee OA paper was presented at the American College of Rheumatology scientific meeting in Philadelphia. (ANI)